FIG. 1 provides a schematic illustration of a part of a cellular communication system 10, wherein each cell 14 comprises a network node 12, typically a radio base station, providing communication services to and from user equipments 11. One particular communication service offered in a communication system is Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (MBMS), which denote broadcast information services covering large geographic areas consisting of one or more cells. Since all these cells distribute the same services, the spectral efficiency of MBMS transmissions can be optimized by applying MBMS single frequency network (MBSFN) transmission. This means that identical data is transmitted on the same radio resources from more than one cell 14. The cells that offer the same set of MBMS services and the same scheduling of MBMS service sessions belong to on MBSFN area 13a,13b. The MBMS control channel (MCCH) is needed for the User Equipment (UE) to obtain service specific information necessary for MEMS service reception, e.g. physical multicast channel (PMCH) configuration such as modulation and coding scheme, MBMS subframe allocation etc.
In the current releases of the 3GPP-specifications for the Long term evolution (LTE) of UTRAN, only non-overlapping MBSFN areas are supported, i.e. one cell 14 can only belong to one MBSFN area. This implies as a consequence that only one MCCH is needed. However, future releases of LTE will also provide for overlapping MBSFN areas 13a,13b, i.e. one cell 14 can belong to several MBSFN areas 13a,13b and there are several MCCHs per cell because there is one MCCH per MBSFN area 13a,13b. 
In order to reduce battery consumption, MBMS notification mechanisms have been introduced, which inform about a change of content for a certain MBMS service. This implies that a UE does not have to periodically read the MCCH but only when a content change has occurred. These notification methods are based on paging mechanisms, i.e. the UE has to monitor the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH). There are mainly two options: According to one option, a new MBMS specific Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI), the M-RNTI, is introduced to address UEs having subscribed to MBMS services. As soon as the UE finds the M-RNTI, it reads the MCCH. According to another option, the UE starts reading a received paging message when having received a paging RNTI, P-RNTI. The paging message may include notification information for MBMS. In that case, UE having subscribed to MEMS services start reading the MCCH.